The Bottleneck That Keeps Talented Professionals From Becoming Leaders

When you're trying to start a business or even if you just have an idea, you're probably going to ask yourself How do I know if I'm doing any of this right? The reality is you can't know. You won't know. You're almost certainly doing it wrong. We all are when we get started. I know that because I've been there. OK, I'm still kind of there, but I am coming out of it. When I started 12 months ago I thought that going fast was going to save me time. I thought that experimenting, even if I didn't have any real direction or purpose, was going to bring me clarity somehow, and I thought that just being myself, being authentic, was going to be enough. And then I spent the better part of a year proving that I was wrong every single day. So I had to do it all over again. This is exactly what I would do. That if you follow the same advice, if you avoid these mistakes, not only will you save yourself time and money, you'll save yourself the headaches and the heartache that makes most people quit. I'm not somebody who's afraid to take action. That's something I'm proud of. And combined with the fact that I'm not afraid to fail, and I'm willing to look silly and to just try pretty much anything means that on any given day I can outwork and out produce just about anybody. And the reason I do it is because I have seen so many smart people, so many people with big dreams, good ideas do absolutely nothing because they get overwhelmed. They overthink things and they never even take their first step. So when I started, I said that I was just going to go fast. I I kind of lived it. Over the past year, I've made 70, 80 videos. I have a newsletter, a website. I've made a couple of courses. But I did all of that without really questioning why I was doing it. And when things weren't going well when I wasn't seeing results I didn't stop to reassess. I just doubled down. I tried to go even faster. But the reality is if you're going fast, that can be just as problematic as going slow. You need to figure out what problem you're really solving, what your purpose is, what other people want from you. Otherwise, you're just making noise. You're creating a chaotic life for yourself, and if you're like me, you might burn yourself out. I almost did. Other than going fast, I didn't really have a plan when I started. So I just decided that no matter what idea I had, I was going to do it. Because I have no shame, because I'm not afraid to fail, I tried everything. I would sit on the floor and eat a sandwich. I would pour my heart and soul into videos and I'd sing weird songs. Time to make a video. Wait, is there anything? with the expectation and hope that eventually people would show me what they liked best. But the reality is I didn't have any underlying thing I was testing, so every day was just a new experiment. None of those experiments added towards any further learning, any more clarity on what was the most valuable thing I could be doing with my time. What people ultimately wanted from me. It was kind of a selfish act. It was fun, but if I could go back in time, I certainly wouldn't do nearly the same type of experimentation because it wasn't very productive at all. one's hard to admit because I let my ego and my pride stom me from learning things that I should have learned in the first few weeks of starting this business. I saw other people doing things but I didn't like them. I didn't want to be like them. So I just shut it all out. You know I didn't research. I didn't study the masters and the grades. I didn't take little pieces from other people instead. Every single day I had to learn everything. There was nothing to build upon because I was so focused on being unique. So here it is. Here's what I learned from those mistakes and how it would start differently if I could do it all over again. The first thing I would do is I'd sit myself down and I'd say, hey, listen, I know you want to get started. I know you want to move fast, but before you do anything we need to at least think about the intersection of these four things. you need to think about what you love to do, what it is you're good at. You need to think about what other people need and how you're going to impact some sort of a change or relief in them. You don't have to have it perfect, but every day you need to be thinking about and refining your understanding of those four things. The reason I would do that s because when I started, I really only focused on the first two. I knew what I loved. I loved to talk. I think that's pretty clear. And I knew that it was pretty good at it. But if I had spent just a little bit more time every day asking myself, what do other people need? I would make sure I wasn't just looking at what excites me or when I was good at. I'd make sure that I was doing things that were helping other people. Every idea, every business, every success is an engine for some kind of a transformation. If you can't name what that transformation is, how people are going to change, then you have to ask yourself, why would they pay attention? Why would they care? But I was starting over, I would still make sure that experimentation was at the center of everything I was doing. I would just do it a little differently. Instead of just throwing stuff in the wall, instead of hoping that the experimentation was going to lead me to clarity, I would use experimentation to further my understanding. Every day I'd wake up and I'd have a question, a thesis. I'd say, I think this particular type of person needs this type of help or support. Then I'd go out and I'd do something to see if I was right. I'd send an email. I'd make a video. I'd get on a call no matter what I did I would just be doing something to try to validate that that thing was true. And if it was, I'd doubled down. I'd try a new experiment. I'd think about the different ways I could bring that information or change to their life and see if it was better than the previous way. And if it didn't work out, which is basically how the first 10 or 11 months of my business started then I'd go back to my assumption. I'd change my thesis. I'd ask myself, do I have the right people? Do I actually understand what their needs and wants are? Because maybe I don't. And if I don't that I'm probably headed in the wrong direction. Take it for me somebody that's experimented a lot. I would trade everything I did for the first ten months of this business for one little signal every single day, positive or negative that helps me understand what I'm doing well and what other people need. It's still fun to experiment within parameters, but is so much more effective if you know why you're doing it instead of just doing it because it was an idea you had. As I said, when I started, I was so focused on being an original that I was just ignoring things that were working. I was ignoring other people's success because I didn't like the way they were doing it. I didn't like the things they were talking about or how they were maybe giving people a full sense of hope or expectations. But if I could do it all over again, I would tell myself to just get over it, look at what they're doing well. You may not like them, you may not want to be like them, you certainly shouldn't copy everything they're doing, but there are pieces of everything they do that you can learn from. There must be a reason people are buying their products and paying attention. You don't have to like them. We have to respect the work they're doing. Learn how they frame the problem and their solutions, learn how they package, how they talk about things, learn the frequency that they create new material, and take those pieces and make them your own. You can still be completely original. You can still be different. You can still do things your own way, but why invent everything? Just focus on the parts that are unique to you and build your foundation off the things that have been working for other people. The best advice I can give myself and the best advice I'll give you right now is that you have to learn what works, you have to learn the rules, and then and only then can you break them with intention. That's how you get out of the game that's how you stay relevant. That's how you avoid having to guess at everything you try to do. I wish I knew all these things a year ago. So if you're just getting started Learn from this. Use me as an example. This is what I do every day when I talk about I'm going to continue making mistakes and I got to keep sharing them. So subscribe to the channel, join the newsletter, drop a comment. We can do this together. You are the people that I want to impact change with. The only way I'm going to do that is if you tell me when my assumptions are right or wrong, when my lessons help you change your life and find success faster than you thought. And just remember, you don't have to outwork me or anybody else. You don't have to do more. All you have to do is be a little bit smarter, figure out what really matters can go forward.